Many personal computer users find the desktop metaphor of prior art computer user interfaces (“UIs”) confusing and difficult to learn. Accordingly, there is a need for a system that simplifies the user's interaction with the computer by using fewer kinds of user interface controls in a more general way.
Further, the ways in which users interact with information about prior UIs is different than the way the user interacts with content, such as documents, presentations, and the like. For example, in prior art UIs, content and UI information are displayed entirely differently. Content is typically displayed in a particular region or frame of the display. User interface information is never displayed there. Instead, user interface information is displayed in dialog boxes, drop down menus, and tool bars. User content never shows up in dialog boxes, drop down menus, and tool bars. Similarly, users find user content documents and UI help information differently. Accordingly, there is a need for a UI architecture in which the concepts and actions the user must learn are the same for interacting with both content and the UI. Such a unification makes computer software easier and more efficient to use.
Prior art UIs for desktop computers typically require a keyboard and mouse in order for a user to interact with them, and most pen-enabled palmtop computers have cumbersome means of interaction. Therefore, there is a need for more “natural” styles of interacting with a computer by using a minimum number common gestures such as touch, hold, erase, draw or write.
Prior art UI desktop metaphors applied to small form factor devices are typically cluttered and difficult to use. In addition, applications that provide rich functionality are sometimes constrained by the limited ability of a user to navigate menus and dialogs of prior art UIs. For instance, for such applications, the menus and tool bars may get too big, and the help system may get too cumbersome to navigate or search. Accordingly, in addition to the need for a simpler more unified experience for the user of an application, there is also a need to facilitate the uncluttered presentation of user interfaces for applications providing very rich functionality.
Usability data for prior art UIs show that users of multi-windowed systems don't always know which actions will produce results in which window. Therefore, there is a need to reduce the complexity and confusion sometimes caused by multi-windowed user interfaces.
Prior art UIs typically offer limited capabilities for customizing the UI. Accordingly, there is a need for a UI architecture that provides greater flexibility to users, content developers, and third-party software developers by providing broader capabilities for easily customizing the UI. For example, different groups of users may be of different levels of computer skill and have need of different sets of features, and the UI can be customized to better suit their needs.
Users of prior art UIs sometimes become extremely frustrated when their work is lost because their work was not properly saved. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a save-less model, so that users do not need to explicitly save their work.
Users of prior art UIs typically do not have a convenient and seamless way to record notes verbally and to associate notes with particular parts of a document. Accordingly, there is a need to provide rich support for audio note taking with the ability to correlate and synchronize audio and textual material and to review and retrieve audio notes.
Prior art device-to-device and device-to-PC synchronization schemes typically are not seamless and require a great deal of configuration and attention from the user. Accordingly, there is a need to provide automatic and transparent synchronization between a user's computers, such as a handheld computer and a desktop computer.
In prior art UIs, methods for getting help are currently separate from the content and often require completely different interactions than interacting with content. Accordingly, there is a need to make the process of getting help about a function the same as the process for carrying out the function.
Prior art UIs typically have a “single-user model” at the heart of their interface metaphors, which makes sharing content and annotations with other users difficult and non-intuitive. Accordingly, there is a need to make sharing and collaborating on documents easier and more automatic.